Literature that crosses the line: Cocaine in books

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3. From the article:

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Since the mid-19th century, cocaine has occupied a particular position in culture. To mention a few of most canonical, even clichéd examples of its ubiquity: Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes were familiar with its charms. Sigmund Freud consumed, prescribed and elaborated on it in several works, including On Cocaine. The German poet Gottfried Benn, one of the most somber voices of the interwar period, addressed the subject directly when he thanked cocaine for “the dissolution of ego, that sweet, deeply longed-for state, this is what you give me.” Here too are the nightmares of early Stephen King, which certainly would have been different were it not for his own enthusiastic consumption.

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